Urban trees: A Sustainable and Phyto-monitoring Tool for Cities and Societies

Air pollution is a serious global threat that adversely affects both human and plant health. Once pollutants enter the environment, plants serve as natural filters, capable of absorbing, accumulating, and detoxifying them in various forms. The urban trees play a significant role in mitigating air pollution by capturing and dispersing dust. A present study was conducted to assess the dust accumulation potential on the foliar surfaces of plants and its effects on their tolerance towards pollution ( i.e. , APTI). In addition, the morphological responses of trees and their efficiency in dust retention and dispersion were also evaluated. Results indicated that dust deposition was seen higher at sites, including SE1 > NW1 > W1 and N1 across all selected tree species. Seasonal variation was higher in winter than in summer and monsoon. Among the studied species, B. papyrifera had maximum dust accumulation (0.102 ± 0.08 g). The overall dust accumulation trend was B. papyrifera  >  F. religiosa  >  P. longifolia  >  S. siamea  >  A . indica during all seasons and sites. While higher dust-capturing capacity was detected in S. siamea , followed by A. indica , and lowest in plant B. papyrifera . Accumulated dust negatively affects plant morphological and physiological characteristics, altering antioxidative properties, resulting in higher ascorbic acid content in plants with elevated APTI values. Chronologically, we found that F. religiosa had higher APTI values than B. papyrifera  >  P. longifolia  >  S. siamea  > and A. indica . API evaluation was also higher in F. religiosa (81.25%), which emerged as the most suitable species for green belt development. Therefore, the findings suggest that the selected species can serve as effective bio-tools for developing sustainable urban ecosystems The study further provides valuable insights for future predictive models for managing urban dust pollution and selecting optimal plant species for ecological restoration in polluted environments.